Blue, I
by Abandon Structure
Summary: Mixed somewhere in their batch of motley genetics lies an alien strand that carries with it a duty greater than anyone realizes. Follows Jondy, Zane & Vada. A Charmed/Roswell/Dark Angel Crossover.
1. Two Aliens Walk Out of a Bar

A/N: It's like an itch, you know? I'll be writing something, pausing for reading breaks, then bam! Out of nowhere, people start talking my head, insisting that I create them. It's kind of irritating, actually…but I wouldn't trade it for anything. ;D

Chapter 01: So Two Aliens Walk Out Of a Bar…

"Fucking hellhole of a town."

Zane arched an eyebrow, watching carefully as Jondy dropped the drinks she'd ordered in front of them.

"Some asshole pinch you again?" He asked dryly, reaching for the nearest drink and grinning as Jondy hissed at him.

"Always the ass," was her snappish reply. "What the fuck is up with that?"

"Language, my blonde sister," Zane drawled, lazily reaching for the next drink as his gaze scanned the small town bar they were currently in.

"Fuck you," was Jondy's peevish reply, but she kept her mouth shut, settling for glowering at the general population.

His neck was itching and his spine was tingling and he could just feel eyes watching him, practically digging holes in the back of his neck.

"Anything?" He asked, expression still wryly amused.

"Bald guy in the corner," was Jondy's short tempered reply. "Goes by the name Kal."

"Kal?" Zane questioned disbelievingly.

"With a K," Jondy smiled slightly.

"How pretentious," Zane murmured, fingering the rim of his glass. "Options?"

"We could always kill him," was Jondy's slightly-too-chipper reply.

"We don't kill people, Jay. Not anymore."

"Speak for yourself," Jondy replied, leaning back in her seat as she studied the man behind him through half-raised eyelids.

"Dude's been following us since LA," she stated. "Even if he's not working for Manticore, he's definitely got something planned and I, for one, am in no hurry to end up back in a cage."

"Nobody said anything about cages," Zane twisted around slightly, offering her a fake smile as he did so. "Maybe he just wants to talk."

"Talk," Jondy snorted, finishing her drink before shoving the glass toward Zane who rose from his seat, grabbing it to head for the bar, his turn to get the drinks and to run surveillance. "Yeah, right."

"You never know," was his bemused reply as he headed for the bar.

* * *

"I don't like this." Kal fought the urge to sigh as he turned his head slightly to look at his companion.

"You never like anything," he stated dryly. "It makes you severely difficult to tolerate."

His companion scowled into his drink, leaning back sullenly as he stared at the pretty blonde girl who kept glancing their way.

"You're sure she's one of them?" Was all he asked, taking the swizzle stick and stirring it around in his drink as he kept his gaze steady on the girl.

"I've seen what she can do," Kal replied, throwing back the last of his scotch, snapping his fingers and pointing to his glass to get one of his men to order him another one. "If she's not one of them, then I'm a flippin' fairytale."

"More like Urban Legend," came the smart ass reply and Kal fought the urge to sigh again.

"You know, I should have left you in Brooklyn," he finally stated.

"If you left me there, I'd be dead," came the logical reply from his companion.

"I know," Kal couldn't quite keep the wistful note from his tone, eliciting another scowl.

* * *

"They were talking about killing him," Phoebe was saying in a hushed aside to Piper as she hovered at the edge of the bar.

"So?" Piper asked, busy sorting through her alcohol supply. "People make off-hand comments like that all the time."

"I know, but I felt it – the blonde really wants to kill him." Piper's eyebrows skyrocketed as she followed Phoebe's line of sight.

"Her?" She blinked in surprise as she took in the petite blonde girl. Jeans, leather jacket, Ramones t-shirt, and biker boots.

"You know, now that you mention it, she doesn't quite fit in, does she?"

"See?" Phoebe stated, almost twitching with excitement. "I'm telling you, she's evil."

"Who's evil?" Paige asked, pushing her way through two male dancers, making a vaguely disgusted face at their leering expressions before stumbling the last few feet with a relieved sigh.

"The blonde at the middle table," Piper nodded her head in their direction. "Phoebe says she wants to kill somebody."

"But people say that all the time," Paige reached over to grab the drink she'd left near Piper for safekeeping as she twisted slightly to follow her sisters gesture. "Why should we take this seriously?"

"Because – " Phoebe started only to be cut off as Piper gave a low whistle and Paige all but purred.

"Hello, gorgeous," Paige arched an eyebrow as she took in the blonde's companion. Tall, tanned, and hunky, he looked like he'd just stepped off the cover of a bad-boy romance that women just couldn't wait to get their hands on.

"Wow," Piper breathed, pushing up on her tip toes slightly as she tilted her head to the side, studying the cuties ass. "I'd like to get a hold of those buns."

"Piper! Paige!" Phoebe snapped, drawing the twos startled attention back towards her definitively not-happy face. "Potential killer over there, hello! And if he's with her, chances are pretty good their in league together."

"In league together? What the hell have you been watching, sister?"

"Indiana Jones," was Phoebe's quick reply before she waved her hand. "But's that's not important, the important thing is – "

"What's he feeling?" Piper interrupted.

"Huh?" Phoebe blinked at her.

"Hunka Hunka Burnin' Love," Piper nodded her head to the now sitting hottie. "What's he feeling?"

"How is that relevant?" Piper rolled her eyes.

"You said the blonde is homicidal, so if he's with her, chances are pretty good he should be feeling homicidal as well. So what's he feeling?"

Phoebe frowned as she focused on the blonde's companion.

"I don't know," she finally stated with a curious frown, tilting her head to the side as she studied him. "He feels kind of weird."

"Does this particular brand of weird have a flavor?" Paige asked, straightening slightly as she stared at Phoebe with wary concern.

"What like Warlock or Demon?" Phoebe was shaking her head even as she spoke, her gaze fixated on the hottie. "No. He doesn't feel like anything I've ever felt before."

"I'll say," Paige murmured, slumping back on the counter with a wistful sigh before jerking upright with a startled yelp, turning to glare at Piper.

"No oogling the potential murderers," Piper instructed wagging her finger in warning.

"Okay, okay!" Paige rolled her eyes. "Geesh. It wasn't like I was going to go over there and talk with him. I was just looking."

"Yeah, well, look elsewhere, Missy."

Phoebe ignored her two sisters scrapping as she continued to stare at the grey eyed man, completely mesmerized.

He was just so…different.

He felt hot in her head. Not hot as in attractive, but vibrant and alive.

Primal, like he was more connected to the world than normal people.

"Excuse me, Miss?"

"Huh?" Phoebe jerked back to reality, blinking and shaking her head as she turned to look at the man who'd interrupted her thoughts.

"Can I help you?"

"Mr. Langley would like a refill on his scotch," came the monotone reply.

"Uh, okay." Phoebe hesitated a moment before ducking behind the bar, pulling out a scotch glass and filling it up a couple of fingers before handing it over.

"On his tab, right?" She gave an amused little chuckle, her smile faltering in the face of his dead-eyed stare.

"Okay then, note to self: bodyguards have no sense of humor."

* * *

"I don't know, Zane, she's been checking you out for the past fifteen minutes. It could be love."

Jondy's teasing had Zane smiling even as he glanced back at the brunette by the bar, who flushed scarlet and hastily averted her attention away from him.

"Maybe later," he decided after giving her a quick once over. "After we're done here."

"Right," Jondy agreed, settling straighter in her chair as she turned to fix her gaze on the man in the corner.

"Come on, you bastard," she whispered, not bothering to glance away this time when he turned to look at her. "Make my day."

* * *

"She's looking at you." Kal rolled his eyes.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious."

"You told me to tell you, so I'm telling you. There's no need to get snippy about it."

"Snippy," Kal winced as he accepted his drink from the body guard, hastily shooing him away with his hands. "God, you watch too much television. Read a book every once in a while."

"I read," came the defensive reply as his companion leaned back sullenly in the booth they occupied. "Sometimes."

"Yeah, well, here's a tip, buddy: girls like guys who can recite poetry to them. Poetry is found in books. Books that you can read to the girls who will then have sex with you."

"I don't wanna," came the accented reply that had Kal wincing slightly.

He'd spent months trying to get the kid to speak like a normal person cause there was only so much of that godawful Brooklyn accent he could take before he wanted to pull his non-existent hair out by the roots.

"Look, kid," Kal sighed, leaning back slightly, averting his gaze from the blonde to look at the boy next to him. "You miss her, I get that. But hey, there's plenty of other fish in the sea. Window shop a bit."

"They're not family," came the clipped reply.

"Technically, your family tried to kill you."

"Technically," the boy mocked, making a face as he shot Kal a distinctly unpleasant look. "That was Lonnie and Rath. Ava wouldn't doing something like that. She loves me."

"Yeah, and you treated her like what, exactly?" Zan clasped his mouth shut, crossing his arms as he stared sullenly forward.

He wasn't exactly proud of his previous behavior, especially since it played a key factor in nearly getting him killed, but Ava…he may not have loved her like he should have, but he definitely missed her.

"Come on," Kal returned his attention to the blonde, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Just do it already. Make the first move."

* * *

"He's not going to make the first move," Jondy stated, not tearing her gaze away from the staring contest for even a second as she spoke, her teeth bared slightly in a primitive snarl.

"So we make it for him," Zane stated amiably enough, raising a finger to attract the attention of a passing waitress.

Slipping her a fifty and a daze-inducing smile, Zane gave her his instructions and a napkin before sending her on her way.

"Fifteen minutes," he murmured, leaning back in his seat, his eyes straying to where the brunette from earlier had stood. It surprised him that he felt a vague pang in his chest when he saw that she was no longer there, but he dismissed it easily enough and refocused on the mission at hand.

Sun Tzu's Art of War was like bread and butter to the X5's – it was the Bible, their Creed, the code by which they lived their lives.

For the first nine years of their lives, it'd been indoctrinated into them. After that, it'd become a necessary survival tool.

And one of Sun Tzu's first rules was never let the enemy pick the terrain, second only to never make the first move unless victory in ensured.

No way was Zane letting that bastard come out on top. He was going to tell Zane where Vada was even if Zane had to kill him to get the information out.

It wouldn't be the first Manticore operative he'd killed and he had no doubt the man in the corner would hardly be the last.

Over in the corner, he and Jondy watched with too-bright eyes as the waitress set the message on the table in front of the man before walking away.

He read it quickly before raising his gaze and giving them one small decisive nod of agreement.

"Game on," Zane murmured, rising smoothly to his feet, Jondy already bouncing to her own.

"Let's play," she purred with a feral grin as they headed for the door.

* * *

"How do we know this isn't some sort of trap?" Zan murmured quietly as Kal took one last sip of his scotch.

"They're Emerians," Kal stated with an offhand shrug of sorts. "They don't do traps, remember?"

Zan pursed his lips at the faint dig – ever since his accident, some of his memories of his old life had gotten a bit…fuzzy.

He could remember Emerians, vaguely, but it was like trying to view a picture under water; extremely blurry and never completely clear.

"Besides," Kal gave Zan a quick pat on the knee. "Emerians are fighters. They may be fast and strong, but the powers of the mind will win every time. Remember that."

"Bad ass rhyme," Zan stated sarcastically as the two rose to their feet and headed for the same door the two Emerians had just disappeared through. "Yeah, I'll remember."

* * *

"They're leaving! They're leaving!" Phoebe tugged on Piper's arm, her eyes wide and frantic as she watched the Hunk and the Blonde exit the club.

"Okay! Okay! Ouch!" Piper whined, tugging her arm from Phoebe's bruising grip with a dirty look even as she set aside the vodka she'd been about to pour.

"Paige!" Phoebe called out, frantically gesturing the other girl over even as movement caught her attention.

"Oh boy."

"Oh boy what?" Piper asked, looking first at Phoebe then following her line of sight.

"Oh boy," Piper murmured as she watched the object of the blonde's homicidal glare get up, the kid he'd come in with trailing sullenly at his heels as the two headed for the back exit.

"This isn't good," was Paige's contribution as the three sisters watched the two men disappear out the door.

"What do we do?" Piper asked, eyes wide as she turned her attention to Phoebe, who mulled it over for about a millisecond.

"We follow them."

Paige let out a melodramatic sigh, pouting as she trudged after the other two.

"…and these are my new shoes, too."

* * *

"You're a hard man to get time alone with," Zane was the first to break the silence. He was leaning against the back wall, hands drifting loosely by his sides as he braced himself against it.

"So I'm told," Kal replied with a humorless and slightly hostile look. "Let's get this over with, then. What's your price? How much is Kivar paying you?"

"Kivar?" Zane's face gave nothing away as he stared at the man known as Kal Langley.

"It depends," Jondy's simpering voice sounded from behind them. The boy jerked around, his hands rising defensively in front of him even as Kal let out an annoyed sigh.

"You never used to be this annoying," he stated, keeping his eyes on Zane as he motioned for the kid to stand down with one hand.

"Yeah, well, things change," Zane could keep the bitter note out of his voice as he shifted his weight slightly, keeping his eyes on Kal all the while.

"Where's the rest of your squad?" Kal asked, cocking his head to the side slightly as he made a show of glancing at their surroundings. "Hiding, maybe?"

"Don't know," came Zane's immediate reply. "Around. Free."

If Kal had eyebrows, they'd be skyrocketing right now.

"Free?"

"As in the opposite of imprisoned?" Jondy's bitter voice rang out behind them and Kal was startled enough that he turned to look at her instead of the male.

"You were imprisoned?" Kal seemed so genuinely surprised that Zane actually felt the first vague stirrings of unease in his gut since Jondy had called him three cities ago and told him she was being followed and that Vada was missing.

"Like you didn't know," but Jondy couldn't quite hide her uncertainty as she pulled back slightly on her animal instincts. "Did you?"

Kal almost glared at her, holding himself in check just in time, sparing the male a nervous look.

"No," Kal replied, turning his body so he could see both of them at the same time. "When I was there, you were free."

"We were never free," Zane stated darkly.

"You were employed," Kal corrected. "Paid. People looked up to you."

"Paid?" Jondy blinked at him in utter disbelief. "Are you kidding me?"

"You were warriors," Kal was almost completely and utterly confused by now. "Don't you remember?"

"Remember what?" Zane cut Jondy's scathing reply off with a wave of his hand, his eyes narrowed in suspicion as he watched the other man.

"Your home."

Whatever Kal was going to say next was cut off as Jondy leapt forward with a snarl, moving so fast that neither alien had time to erect a shield in defense.

"They killed my sister!" She snarled into his face, one hand gripped around his neck and raising him three feet off the ground. "That was never home!"

"Jondy!" Zane snapped, pushing away from the wall, only to let out a pained grunt as something flew into him, knocking him to the side.

If he were an ordinary, the blow might have caused some serious damage. But because he wasn't normal, he was on his feet and whirling towards the direction of the object with a predator's grace.

And blinking in surprise as he stared at the brunette from earlier, another woman on either side of her, all three of them staring at him in wide eyed surprise as the one on the brunette's left kept flicking her fingers at him.

"What the hell are you doing?"

It went against every training protocol he'd ever been taught, but the woman was so enthusiastic about the gesture and appeared to be so freaked out by whatever it was, he just couldn't take her seriously.

"Paige!" The hand-flickerer yelled and suddenly the woman on the right was moving.

"Dumpster!" She shouted and Zane had a moment to stare at her in complete disbelief before the dumpster was suddenly hurling towards him so fast he only had time to jump before it banged into the wall behind him.

He landed on cats feet, whirling to stare at the women and ducking just in time as a garbage bag was suddenly hurtling towards his head.

"Hey!"

* * *

Jondy let out a pained grunt as she went flying back into the wall, impacting hard enough to send brick shards raining down on top of her before she was on her feet again, fists clenched and teeth bared as she started forward only to come up short against an honest to God forcefield.

"What the fuck?" She managed, punching one fist against it in angry puzzlement staring at it a moment before fixating on the boy on the other side of it. "What the hell are you doing?"

* * *

"What the hell are you doing?" Zane yelped as another trash bag went hurting towards him, throwing himself the side into a roll before climbing back to his feet and staring in bewilderment as the hand-flickerer renewed her gesture with even greater enthusiasm.

"I won't let you kill him!" The brunette snapped, stepping forward, her fists clenched as she let out a loud kiyup before snapping a kick straight at his head.

"What the hell are you talking about, lady?" Zane grunted as he blocked, punching forward with enough force to send her flying back into the other two women, the three falling on themselves in an angry pile.

"You're evil," the one with the ability to throw trash at his head stated, blowing her hair out of her face as she pushed the hand-flickerer's leg off of her. "And we're here to stop whatever evil plan you're trying to execute. Duh."

"What evil plan?" Zane had no real gauge upon which to measure befuddlement, but if he had to hazard a guess, he'd say he was pretty high on the scale.

"You were going to kill that…man." Phoebe blinked, her jaw dropping slightly as she took in the scene on the opposite side of the alley.

There was a green see-through shield like thing emanating from the kids hand, keeping the blonde girl at bay while the bald man, Kal, was saying something that the Blonde was clearly having a hard time believing if her eye rolls were anything to go by.

"Jondy?" Zane called, keeping a careful eye on the three crazy women as he looked towards his sister.

"He says their fucking aliens!" Jondy snapped back. "And that we are too. He thinks are memories are fucked up."

"Aliens?" Zane murmured the word quietly to himself, shaking his head before turning to stare down at the three gobsmacked and frozen women in front of him.

"And I suppose you are, too?"

"Witches, actually," the brunette stated around a dropped jaw, her brow furrowing as she turned to look at the other two. "Did she just say aliens?"

"No," the hand-flickerer was hasty to reply. "She did not. She can't have, because aliens don't exist."

"Six years ago witches didn't exist, either," the brunette stated dryly.

"So?" the hand flickerer sat herself upright, pushing her hair out of her face as she glared at the other woman. "What does that have to do with us?"

"I'm just saying, don't dismiss the possibility."

"Witches?" Zane shook his head in complete and utter disbelief as he took in the scene.

Three women claiming to be witches in front of him, two men claiming to be aliens opposite him, and then there was him and Jondy – two freaks of science cooked up in a lab somewhere for the sole purpose of being some sort of supersoldier that would kill on command like well-trained and mindless assassins.

"Fuck." Normally he left the swearing to Jondy – the girl cussed enough to put a sailor to shame – but in this situation, he felt he deserved to say the word.

"Excuse me?" Hand-flickerer stared up at him with such blatant disapproval he actual found himself taking a step back.

"Zane!" Jondy snapped, drawing his attention back to her. "Get your ass over here."

* * *

"We're not aliens," Jondy told Kal for the umpteenth time, keeping her arms carefully crossed as she eyed them through the kids nifty green shield thingy.

"Alright then, I'll bite," Kal let out an irritated huff. "What are you? Mutant freaks? Got bitten by a radioactive spider or dunked in a pile of chemical goo?"

"You're getting warmer," Jondy retorted, just plain irritated and more than slightly alarmed by this clusterfuck.

"You're not human," the kid put in his two cents, sweating slightly under the strain of maintaining his shield.

"No shit, Sherlock," Jondy replied, eyeing him carefully. If push came to shove, she was pretty sure she could take him.

The question remained, however, as to whether or not it was justified.

"Can you believe this shit?" Jondy heard Zane approaching, turning her head to grimace at him. "Aliens?"

Her expression faltered slightly as she took in the three women following him.

"Them, too?"

"Oh, no," Zane smiled at her, a sort of desperate grim humor in his eyes. "They're witches."

"Witches?" Jondy's voice rose slightly in incredulity.

"Witches, huh?" Kal chewed on the inside of his cheek as he studied the three women carefully. "I'd heard about you guys, but I've never actually met one."

"And you would be, who, exactly?"

"Kal Langley, Hollywood producer, caterer to the stars, hit film maker, and alien protector to the Royal Four."

"The Royal Four?" Hand-flickerer arched her eyebrows.

"Me," the kid stated, dropping the shield as suddenly as he'd raised it before tilting his head back.

"But there's only one of you, kid," Zane stated.

"Well, now," the kid replied, using the universal tone that more or less stated 'dumbass' immediately following his words.

"Look," Kal stated, nervously eyeing their surroundings. "If it's all the same to whole freakish lot of you, can we not talk about this here?"

"Fine," Zane agreed quickly, arms crossing over his chest. "Where too?"

"How about our place?" The brunette from earlier suggested, drawing all eyes towards her.

"Phoebe!" The Hand-flickerer hissed.

"Piper," Phoebe replied, reaching out to place a soothing hand on the other woman's shoulder. "It's okay. I can feel it."

Personally, Zane didn't think that really warranted a high level of confidence, but Piper seemed to accept it with almost blind faith.

"Fine," she stated, her eyes drifting from Zane to fix on Kal and the kid.

"1329 Prescott Lane. Be there in fifteen," her narrow eyed gaze swung towards Zane. "You two, too."

"Yes, Ma'am," Jondy drawled behind him, causing him to jerk around to stare at her.

"I want answers, Zane," she stated firmly. "And one way or another, I'm going to get them."

Zane struggled with his instincts for a long minute before jerking his head upright to stare at Kal, his gaze narrowing.

"Fine. We'll talk."

"Fifteen minutes," Kal agreed with a solemn nod before turning to his companion. "Come on, kid. We've got places to be, witches to meet."

"Witches," Zane murmured again, shaking his head as he and Jondy headed for their bikes.

"And you thought we were weird."

There were times where Zane appreciated Jondy's dark sort of humor.

This was not one of them.

A/N: So, here I am….here you are. The question remains: where?

Somewhere? Anywhere? Nowhere? Help me out here peoples – review.


	2. Three Witches Cast a Spell

HISTORY: The Pulse happened, but it wasn't nearly bad enough to send America back into the stone age. The X5's escaped in '09 and managed to thoroughly disappear with new identities after the Pulse when the government set up a program to restore everybody's electronic information. The timeline for the Charmed Ones and the Roswellians has jumped forward about ten years.

A/N: Currently this is a Roswell/Charmed/Dark Angel Crossover. I debated added Supernatural because I've done that with the other two, but I started writing and decided that these three fandoms are enough.

Chapter 02: Three Witches and a Spell

There was a limousine parked out front and a minivan, or mommy-van as Jondy was prone to calling them, cooling down in the driveway.

Carefully pruned flowers in the front yard, perfectly painted mail box in the front, and the garbage was set out at the front of the driveway just waiting to be picked up.

"Domesticity," Jondy leaned forward over the handlebars of her bike, giving the whole scene a surprisingly mellow once over.

"I don't like it," Zane replied, his eyes scanning the nearby rooftops. Some of the old Victorian homes in the area had high arched roofs that were the perfect place to set up a sniper nest…

"I don't know," Jondy replied, head resting on her folded arms as she checked out all the nearby houses. "I don't think it'd be that bad."

"The situation, Jondy," Zane reminded her, swinging his leg over the side of his bike as he let his helmet thunk onto the seat. "Not the scene."

"I know," was her dry reply as she gave the whole area one last almost wistful glance before she followed his lead.

* * *

"Aliens?" Piper was up in the attic, pacing and ranting while an amused Leo looked on. "Warlocks and demons I can believe, but aliens?"

"Well, when you think about it, it's statistically unlikely that humans are the only intelligent life in the universe."

"But aliens?"

"I can see you're having a hard time dealing with this." Phoebe was wringing her hands nervously as she eyed her older sister carefully.

"Why do they have to come _here_?" Piper hissed, whirling around again.

"Aren't you the one who agreed to it?" Leo glanced over at Phoebe for confirmation.

"Well, yeah, but only because I wasn't thinking! Why didn't you stop me?" Phoebe blinked wide brown eyes as she struggled to come up with an explanation.

"Ooops?"

"Ooops? _Ooops?_ What kind of an explanation is that!"

"Piper, you need to calm down," Leo broke in, trying to sooth the irrational witch.

"Don't tell me to calm down!" Piper threw her hands up as she turned to once more resume her pacing. "I have aliens in the parlor and two more on their way. I cannot be calm!"

She stomped her foot to emphasis her lack of calm, whirling to glare at the other two occupants of the attic, both of whom were staring at her with no small amount of bemusement.

"And you're supposed to be the mature one," Phoebe noted, eliciting a growl from the other brunette.

"Um, guys?" Paige's voice had them turning to find the red head in the doorway, giving both of them a slightly apologetic look. "Yeah, hate to interrupt you're little freakout, but everybody's here now, so if we could get this little meeting started, that would be great."

"What's the matter, chickie? Got a hot date tonight?" Piper's sarcasm was in full swing, but her feet were moving towards the door, her initial bought of paranoia-induced anger boiling down to a faint simmer.

"Uh, no. But if we don't get down there soon, they just might try and finish what they started earlier."

"In my parlor? I don't think so. Leo."

"Piper – " Her husband protested, earning him a narrow-eyed glare in response.

"Orb. Now."

* * *

If Zane was having doubts about the authenticity of the claim that they were witches, he was slightly less inclined towards them when a man suddenly appeared in front of him.

"Whoa," Zan murmured, standing from the couch he'd been sitting on, expression wide eyed and slightly alarmed as he looked over at Kal, who waved it off. Literally.

"When you've been around a while, this'll seem like nothing," Kal informed Zan, gaze fixating on the man in front of them.

"Hi," the man said, smiling tightly and giving them a little wave. "I'm Leo, Piper's husband. The girls'll be down in just a second."

"They can take their time," Jondy was semi-frozen in place, the hair on the back of her neck slowly settling down as she struggled to breath and not move at the same time.

There were just some things a girl did not appreciate and this, it turned out, was apparently one of Jondy's.

"No need, we're here," Piper grumbled as the three of them entered the room, Piper heading for Leo and the other two heading for the couch opposite the one Zan and Kal had taken up residence on.

"So," Phoebe, predictably, was the first to talk, turning her bright smile on Zane and Jondy. "The two of you can sit down if you'd like."

Zane blinked in the face of that smile, a little taken aback by its charm, before shaking his head and glancing over at Jondy, who was staring vaguely off into space.

"That's okay," he said, shaking his head again before turning his attention over to the frowning Kal, who was still staring at them. "We'll stand."

"Just like Emerians," Kal drawled, chin resting in the crook between his forefinger and thumb. "Always wanting to be prepared."

"Emerians?" Jondy rejoined the conversations, carefully easing herself around Leo to where she could focus on both him and Kal at the same time as she addressed the latter.

"You guys," Kal replied, dropping his hand from his face to wave it between the two of them.

"Look, pal – "

"Kal," Kal interrupted.

"Kal, pal, whatever – we're not aliens," Zane stated, practically rolling his eyes as he said it.

"It's unmistakable," Kal replied. "The two of you give off the aura."

"Aura?" Jondy's eyebrow arched, her tone and expression both skeptical. "You can read aura's?"

"It's actually a more common ability than you think," Phoebe broke in, playing the peacekeeper. "Its how a lot of businessmen pick out good employees, business partners, potential mates and okay, obviously you don't need to know this. And I will be quiet now."

The dual gazes of Zane and Kal's annoyed looks had Phoebe sucking her bottom lip into her mouth as she looked over at Paige, giving her shoulders a shrug as if to say 'Hey, I gave it a try.'

"So," Jondy broke the silence, drawing everybody's attention to her. "If we're aliens, does this mean we get that cool shield thing?"

"Jondy!" Zane snapped while Kal's lips almost twitched and Zan leaned back into the couch with a faint smirk.

"So you thought it was pretty cool, did you?" Cocky had nothing on his tone and Jondy almost rolled her eyes.

"The shield, yes. You, no." Zan's smirk didn't dim.

"Hey, look, so, here's the deal," Phoebe broke back in and it was like a tennis match watching everybody's gaze switch once more. "So, we're here to help you."

"Help us with what?" Zane was confused, honestly, as to why these three witches had gotten involved in the first place. How _had _they ended up in that alley?

"Well, we protect people and since you – or rather she – was giving off some pretty homicidal vibes, we followed you out into the alley to protect an innocent."

"Hey!" Zan protested, visibly bristling at having the word innocent brushed against him so off-handedly.

"It's a turn of phrase," Kal drawled for his charge. "It basically means anybody who's not a witch."

"Huh," Jondy chewed on her bottom lip for a moment, cocking her head to the side as she studied Phoebe carefully. Phoebe, for her part, was having a hard time processing the blonde girls emotional leaps, blinking in wide-eyed sudden surprise as whatever emotions she was feeling coming off the girl suddenly disappeared.

"So that would make us," she motioned between her and Zane, "innocents?"

For some reason when Phoebe nodded her head Jondy was suddenly smiling widely up at Zane, mirth dancing in her eyes as the other boy snorted.

"Uh, huh, right." He shook his head, running a hand through his hair, his gaze resting first on Phoebe before transferring to Kal and finally coming to stay on Jondy.

"So, then, it's been established that we aren't going to kill him and that we are not aliens or witches or innocents, really, so I think Jondy and I will just be leaving now."

"Wait!" Phoebe protested, getting to her feet as the two teenagers headed for the door.

"Why?" Zane asked, grabbing his helmet from the foyer table as he spared her the briefest of glances.

"Well, it's just, I think," Phoebe was wringing her hands and chewing on her bottom lip as Zane waited patiently for her to spit out her words and her sisters stared at her in confusion.

"What is it, Phoebe?" Piper asked, one hand hooked around Leo's waist as she frowned at her sister.

"I think we can help you," Phoebe finally stated, frowning as Jondy snorted at that and Zane gave her an almost condescending look of bemusement.

"I doubt it," was all he said, though, reaching for the door the same time Phoebe reached for his arm in a last ditch effort to get him to stay.

"Wait – " She started, only to be cut off as a vision slammed into her.

_A girl, brunette, pretty, in a godawful green dress, antenna's in her hair._

_Men yelling, a gun going off, blood._

_A boy, brunette, identical to the one on their couch, kneeling over her, his hand pressed against her wound._

_A confrontation between the brunette and another boy, blonde this time, with him several feet off the ground, pressed against a wall. The sizzle of skin burning as he gripped her wrist in one hand, falling to the ground as she released him with an angry hiss._

_A worried statuesque blonde girl, waving her hand over something, changing it from red to clear._

_And a whispered name._

Vada.

"Phoebe!" Piper was in front of her, holding her upright as the other sister blinked dazed eyes for a few seconds, her gaze fixing on the parlor door where Kal stood with Zan behind him, before darting over to where Zane and Jondy were standing, shoulder to shoulder, frowning at her.

"I know where you can find you sister. I know where you can find Vada," she blurted, causing Zane to immediately stiffen. "And the rest of the ones like you," she hastened on, turning to look at Kal, who frowned slightly in response.

"Where is she?" Zane's pissed off tone should have been warning enough, but Phoebe was still in a vision induced haze.

"I'm not sure," Phoebe replied, frowning as she went back over the contents of her vision. "It was dark in most of them and I only got flashes of scenes."

"Where the hell is Vada?" Zane continued on, causing Jondy to fix a sharp-eyed gaze on him.

"Zane," she warned, but he was already moving, blurring forward so fast towards Phoebe that Piper only barely managed to get her hands up in time.

"What the hell?" Jondy was there in a second, gaping at the living statue her brother had become before fixing her gaze on Piper, eyes narrowed and jaw clenched tightly.

"What the hell did you do to him?"

"Nothing," Piper replied snappishly. "Well, aside from the obvious."

"And how long does 'the obvious' last?" Jondy placed a hand against her brothers shoulders, reassuring herself that he was there and feeling a brief surge of panic at the realization that she couldn't feel – or hear – his heartbeat.

"He'll be frozen until I unfreeze him," came the reply.

"And when are you planning on doing that?" Sugar had nothing on the cloying sweetness of Jondy's words.

"As soon as Phoebe moves and you get a good grip on him," Piper replied just as peevish as before. Jondy's scowl deepened and Piper crossed her arms as she glared right on back. "I'm not going to let him hurt my sister, so either you control him, or he's going to remain a frozen statue for the rest of his life."

She was bluffing, Jondy could smell it, but they were wasting time and if Phoebe genuinely knew how to find Vada, the clock was in motion and they were wasting precious seconds with this inane argument.

So with one last dirty look, she braced herself in front of Zane, hands held in front of her and feet prepared for his onslaught before giving Piper a terse nod.

"I'm ready."

With Phoebe moving out from behind her, when Zane unfroze in a blur of motion, there was nothing behind Jondy to keep her from skidding into the wall.

She hit with a faint grunt that had the others wincing, but immediately twisted, throwing her body in the air and over Zane before landing on her feet and pressing forward so he was suddenly face to face with the wall.

"Chill!" She snapped at him, pressing against him as hard as she possibly could. "We need her to help us and she's not going to help us if you attack her."

"She knows where Vada is," Zane snapped back, not really struggling but finding it impossible to hold completely still under the sudden influx of adrenaline racing through his system.

"And she's going to help us, Zane, just as soon as you get a grip." Jondy gave an extra hard shove against his shoulders to emphasis her point.

"Fine," Zane grunted out, relaxing just enough that Jondy found it safe to release him and take a step back.

"Fine," he repeated, turning and pressing his back against the wall as he fixed his gaze on Phoebe.

"So how exactly are you planning on finding her?"

* * *

Ten minutes later they were all standing in the attic, the four strangers relegated to a minimum of ten feet distance from Phoebe after their crowding had upset the scrying crystal for the seventh time.

"So if you're not aliens, then what are you?" Zan broke the uncomfortable silence, ignoring the frown that deepened on his Protectors face as Zane glanced over at Jondy and Jondy stared silently off into space.

"Nothing you'd be interested in," was the reply Zane finally gave, shifting uncomfortably as Kal's gaze once more focused on him, almost physical with its weight.

"Now I find that highly doubtful, especially since I _know _the two of you are aliens."

"You don't know anything," Jondy broke in, jerking her icy blue gaze to fix on him, expression equally frosty.

"Wrong, blondie," was Kal's sarcastic reply. "I know a lot of things and one of the main things I know is that you're no more human than I am."

Jondy flinched slightly under that accusation and Zane found his fists clenching as a brief spurt of the stench of hurt reached his nostrils before Jondy got a handle on it and managed to erect her ice-cold veneer once more.

"Bullshit," was all Zane snapped in reply. "We're just as human as he is," he nodded his head towards Zan, who was staring in narrow eyed distrust at Jondy, who raised her own gaze to meet his, her anger flashing for just a moment before the frost in her expression had Zan shifting his attention back to his Protector.

"You're Emerians," Kal stated, ignoring Zane's reply as he fixed his sights on Jondy with a faint frown before refocusing on Zane. "And it's your duty to protect the Royal Line of Antar."

"Royal Line?" Jondy found her eyebrows arching as she stared at him. "You're royalty?"

"Not me," Kal gave her a look that clearly underestimated her intelligence before jerking his head over to Zan. "Him. He's one of the Antarian Royal Four."

If he was expecting some sort of wide eyed look of wonder and awe, he was sorely disappointed as both Jondy and Zane regarded him with equally blank stares.

"You don't know who the Royal Four are?"

"Gee," Jondy stated dryly. "Is it that obvious?"

"Whatever the case, as Emerians, you are honor bound to defend and guard the Royal Four with your lives if need be."

"Blind obedience, huh?" Zane sneered, expression distasteful as he regarded Kal with open hostility and hate. "Sorry, been there, done that. Didn't like the scenery much."

"It's your duty," Kal shot back, visibly frustrated as he glared at the two of them.

"Please," Jondy rolled her eyes at him, arms crossed and just barely managing to hold on to her homicidal urges by the barest of threads. "Don't talk to us about duty. As far as we're concerned, the only duty we have is to find our sister."

"You would be foresworn?" Something about the way he said it made it abundantly clear that it was a bad thing, but neither Jondy nor Zane particularly gave a shit.

"We never swore anything," Zane replied coldly. "Except to keep each other safe."

Kal was dumbstruck by the confession. Emerians who were not blood sworn? How was that even possible?

And them swearing to each other? It violated The Codes and moreso, it wasn't supposed to be even physically possible.

Allowing his certainty of their identities to drift to the side for the moment, he studied the two of them with a troubled frown.

If they weren't Emerians and weren't aliens, then what, exactly, were they?

And why had they been following them?

"We look after our own," Zane continued, staring coldly down at Kal. "And you are not one of us."

There was a flash there, a spark of something that had Kal inhaling, the familiar memory of the sharp tang of Emerian emotion and obstinacy causing him to narrow his eyes.

"I don't believe you," he declared, taking a step forward, his angry rising at the thought of these two children not only refusing their duties, but bringing shame to the Emerian name.

"Back on Antar, you two would be executed for failure to comply with your duties and violations of the Sacred Oath."

"Fuck you!" Zane took a belligerent step forward, Jondy at his heels as Zan grabbed Kal by the arm and tugged him back, a flash of worry appearing in his gaze for just a moment before it flickered in the face of his derision.

"Whatever, Kal," he stated, glowering darkly at the two of them. "It's not like I want to be stuck traveling with these two anyways. They're fucking cornball over da sister."

Kal winced, pulled back from the edge of his anger to the familiar land of irritation as Zan lapsed back into that annoying accent.

"Brooklyn," he finally managed to sneer out, carefully extracting himself from Zan's grip and adjusting his suit as he gave his charge an annoyed look. "I had to leave you in Brooklyn."

"What's wrong with Brooklyn?" Jondy and Zan stared at each other, equally horrified at their unintentional agreement on anything.

"Unbelievable," was all Kal managed to mutter, throwing his hands up to run them over his bald crown as he stared at Jondy for a long moment before shaking his head.

Zane said nothing, merely rolling his eyes, well familiar now with Jondy and her love of all things New York. She'd ended up there shortly after the Pulse, only leaving after Lydecker had literally burned down her apartment building. And even then, Zack had nearly had to knock her unconscious to get her out of the state.

"Found them!" Phoebe's cheerful little chirp had them turning as one, simply staring at her as they waited for the verdict.

"Well?" Zane prompted when Phoebe did nothing but swallow nervously under their collective gazes. "Where is she? Where's our sister?"

"Um, well, the good news is the two of you can save on gas by carpooling."

"What are you talking about?" Kal asked, frowning as he stared at the witch. "Just spit it out already."

"They're in Roswell," Phoebe breathed out in one fell swoop. It took Zane a second to translate her words, but by the time meaning penetrated, he was heading for the door, Jondy on his heels.

"Wait!" Phoebe called after them, but Zane was already halfway down the stairs, Jondy moving ahead of him to pull the door open.

"Thanks," he called over his shoulder, briefly locking gazes with her, surprising her with both the sincerity of his gaze and the sudden blast of anxiousness and relief she was emphatically sensing.

"You're welcome," she muttered through emotion numbed lips, barely paying attention as the two aliens brushed past her.

"Wait!" She found herself calling again, only to be cut off once more.

"Thank you for you help, witches," Kal gave them a regal nod as Zan stood silently at his side. "The House of Antar will not forget this favor."

"Antar?" Paige muttered, sharing a confused look with Piper as Phoebe tried one last time to get everybody's attention, but the door was shut and they were gone, leaving her there feeling very frustrated.

"I was going to say Leo can get them there in a heartbeat," Phoebe muttered angrily to the remaining occupants of the room, turning her head to stare incredulously at her sisters.

"How hard would it have been for them to wait five effin' seconds for me to finish a sentence?"

* * *

"How long?" Jondy asked as she buckled her helmet into place and swung a leg over her bike, Zane doing the same in front of her.

"Eight hours," Zane replied. "If we obey the speed limits and road signs."

"Three hours, then," Jondy decided as they started their bikes with a loud roar that echoed down the street.

_Hang on, _she found herself thinking as they pulled out into traffic, barely paying attention to the limo that sped along behind them.

_We're coming, big sister. _

Just hang on.

A/N: Chapter Two annoys me. I don't really know why.

As of this moment, I have twenty-one chapters for this, including the two published so far, plotted. And the realization has hit that it's going to take a lot of chapters to get to the ending, so I've decided to rename this Blue, I. Blue, II is expected to start shortly after Max and Zack are captured by Manticore.

**Sidenote That You Really Want To Read:**

Hi there, it's me - the author. I know, I know - WTF?

Breaking it down simply - I haven't written anything for this in a long time and I'm not sure if I ever will. Right now I'm just positing to get my creative juices flowing again so I can write _something._ I do like Blue **a lot** so I really do want to finish it but I don't see that happening any time in the foreseeable future. I'll update when I have something. Until then...hope this fic gives you joy when you read it and inspiration to create your own.

-Abandon


	3. While Everybody Makes Bad Decisions

Chapter 03: While Everybody Makes Bad Decisions

Gas was an expensive necessity but so was food.

Standing in front of the display of cheap snacks, Jondy thought longingly back to the last time she'd eaten an apple before grabbing an apple flavored pie thing and heading towards the checkout counter with a sigh.

"Donuts," Zane informed her with an annoyed frown as she tossed the goods at him. He caught the apple thing and glared down at it. "I asked for donuts."

"Shut up and eat," was Jondy's equally annoyed reply as she bit into her own pie. "It's good for you."

"So are donuts," Zane grumbled, this time under his breath, as he obediently bit into their abbreviated version of lunch.

"Roswell's about three hours that way," Jondy pointed out, tilting her head in the appropriate direction as she leaned against their newly gassed up bikes. "You think we'll make it before nightfall?"

"If we make good time," Zane replied, finishing his food in two large bites before crumpling the wrapper and tossing it expertly into a nearby waste bin.

"We have to be careful," Jondy pointed out, tilting her head back as she stared up at the skies. "Too many Sector cops on this stretch of road."

"We could have taken the back roads," Zane grunted his reply as he crossed his arms over his chest and waited for her to finish.

"Not as fast," Jondy pointed out with a shake of her head. "We agreed."

"Yeah," Zane gave a humorless smile as Jondy delicately swallowed her last bite and walked over to deposit her own trash in the bin.

"You think we'll run into them again?" Jondy brought the subject back to the one thing they'd been avoiding since the day before, the new turn of weird their life had apparently taken.

"Not a chance in hell," Zane promised, swinging a leg over his bike. "Our lives are weird enough with just us – we don't need them adding to it."

"Yeah," Jondy agreed, rubbing her arms as she struggled with a sudden wave of unease. "Right. It's unlikely."

But she still couldn't quite come to grips with the sinking feeling in her gut as she spared their surroundings one more glance, her trained eye failing to pick up on anything out of the ordinary.

_Mission creep_, she decided with a rough shrug of her shoulders. Pushing it behind her, she climbing onto her own bike and in a matter of seconds, all that was left as a memory of their visit was a cloud of dust.

And a man, lying on his stomach miles away, watching and waiting.

Reaching over next to him, he thumbed the switch on his radio and said two words.

"They're moving."

* * *

The backseat was silent as Kal thumbed the buttons on his phone and Zan stared out the window at the passing scenery, lost in either his own thoughts or his memories.

It was confusing – being alive twice. He figured that was probably why most humans only lived once. Twice was just too damn confusing.

And painful.

_God._

His hand is up and rubbing against his chest over the place where his heart was one big raw aching mess.

_Vilondra._

Sister, friend, companion and confidant. They'd been close since the beginning and to have her betray him like this?

He remembered her laughter when they were kids and he'd done something stupid, remembered her pulling him by the hand to hide so he wouldn't get caught.

She would read to him at night, brushing his hair out of his face and kissing his forehead softly like their mother would.

And then when they got older, he remembered her listening to his frustrations about the responsibilities he was expected to bear, remembered her talking to him, calming him down, making him _think._

And then there was his wedding with Ava – God, _Ava_ – where she'd been right at his side with Rath by her side.

Of all the resentments he had now, that was one of the greatest, one of the freshest. Rath had been his friend, his confidant, but Vilondra had taken that from him.

Then it hadn't mattered – he'd had Ava, he'd been happy. Rath had been happy. Here?

They were fighting here – an honest to God battle – and instead of united front they were in fractured pieces.

And it was all his fault.

"Deep thoughts?"

Kal's voice startled him out of his contemplations and he let out a humorless bark of laughter as he sighed and ran his fingers through his hair.

He'd cut it short – Kal had said short was all the rage and to be honest while he could still remember the length of his hair on Antar, it was always accompanied by the lingering memory of severe annoyance with how long it took to care for it.

"We were so stupid," he stated to the limo floor as he sits there, letting himself fall back into his thoughts with one more tired sigh. "So fucking stupid."

Kal said nothing in reply, his attention apparently all on his blackberry but inside, deep inside where there had always been silence, only silence, since he'd arrived on this blasted planet, he felt a thump.

It was sharp, a slicing, stabbing pain, but it was there and it was great because for the first time in a long time…he felt hope.

* * *

"So what's her story?" Maria asked, leaning back against the counter as she watched the newest hire troll her way through her duties. She was pretty enough – dark brown hair, deep brown eyes, nicely tanned skin, but there was a sort of listlessness about her, like she was just recovering from being sick.

"Great credentials," Liz replied, glancing up from the shake mixer she'd been cleaning, almost absent-mindedly answering Maria's question, her gaze flitting over to the new girl before returning to the machine. "She worked at The Short Dash in LA for a while."

"Kingman's place?" The Dining Café was a big business with lots of potentials for connections and Kingman's Short Dash in LA was a thready connection to the Crashdown, but they were connected since Jeff Parker and Kingman both had one big thing in common, namely Liz's mother.

"I still can't believe…."

"Drop it," Liz warned, shooting Maria a warning look that the other girl smiled widely at. Just how close Liz Parker had come to being Liz Kingman was always up for debate, but considering the way Luke Kingman eyed her mother whenever he came around, it was pretty damn close.

"So how old is she?" Maria continued on. "Is she going to school with us?"

"She graduated," Liz replied, finishing with the shake machine and tossing the rag into the laundry bucket before grabbing the ketchup bottles and unscrewing the tops. "Dad needed someone to work days since Agnus quit."

"Ah, yes. Agnus – now there was a real catch. Always late, always smoking, rude to the customer and never quite able to make correct change. Tell me your dad upgraded."

"She can count, if that's what you mean," Liz replied and there was a faint cough that had both of them turning towards the subject of their conversation, but she was thoroughly engrossed in taking the order of the lone occupant of the diner.

"Whatever," Marie replied, tilting her head to the side as she watched the older girl with narrow eyed concentration. "Just…."

"Just what?" Liz asked, pausing in her duties to follow Maria's line of sight back to the other girl once more.

"I don't know," Maria replied. "She just seems a bit off."

"Off?" Liz stared at the new girl, brow furrowed slightly as she tried to track whatever it was that was setting of Maria's infamous spidey-sense.

"Nothing, never mind," Maria replied, turning with a gusty sigh so that her back was to the waitress as she smiled at her friend. "Just forget I said anything. This whole situation with the…people is making me paranoid."

"People?" Liz arched one amused eyebrow as she carefully balanced the last two ketchup containers.

"Czechoslovakians," Maria stated, causing Liz to smile until Maria reached over and jostled her arm. "No, I mean, _Czechoslovakians._ Here! Now!"

Her heart beat was already kicking as she turned towards the door, smile on her face as Max entered with Michael on his right and Isabel on his left, the three of them all having a conversation that ended on Max's part the second he spotted her.

"Hey," he greeted as the arrived at the counter, his eyes never leaving her face.

"Hey," she replied with a soft smile, her eyes just as locked on his as he was on her.

"Hey," Maria's greeting to Michael lacked the goofy la-la-ness of Max and Liz, but there was a note of warmth to it.

"Hey," Michael's reply was cool and aloof but the way he was careful not to look at Maria too long spoke volumes that had the blonde girl smiling slightly.

"Oh brother," Isabel rolled her eyes at the goo-fest, settling herself on a stool and reaching for a menu.

"So what's good today?" She asked the open air, not really expecting an answer.

"Try the Sigourney Weaver," an unfamiliar voice broke into her annoyed perusal of the menu – broke through the couple haze that surrounded the other four, and had all of them turning to blink at the waitress who smiled warmly enough at them. "Jose's doing a pretty damn good job with it today."

"Thanks," Isabel blinked at the woman, her heartbeat kicking. She knew she hadn't said something incriminating or suspicious since she hadn't really gotten a chance to say anything and, besides, years of keeping secrets had left her with a distinctively cautious personality even among safe places and safe people, but still…she hated surprises.

Michael had been peripherally aware of the stranger since entering the room but as always his mind went a little stupid and sideways at the sight of Maria so he'd pushed that awareness to the back of his skull, but it was in the front now, clanging away with a million little warning bells that made him want to narrow his eyes in suspicion.

He kept his game face on, though, as he watched the girl make her way to the order pick-up space, clipping her ticket up before turning to face him. Her eyes brushed towards his and he lost the battle to keep a straight face with what he saw there.

There was fight in those eyes – fight and wariness that made it abundantly clear that the owner had seen more than their fair share of that. Awareness swum in their depth, casting murky shadows and even deeper than that was the thing that made Michael's heart grow ice-cold.

He knew those eyes – he saw them sometimes when he looked in the mirror. He knew what they meant and he wondered sometimes about the life he'd lived before that had put such a look on his face.

Those were the eyes of a killer – cold, merciless.

Her face was pretty, gorgeous even, but it was the predator beneath that had Michael watching her.

"I'm taking fifteen," she stated, giving Liz a tight smile, her gaze lingering over Michael a moment as she untied her apron and set it aside on the counter. "Cover my table?"

"No problem," Liz replied, smiling warmly enough as the other girl disappeared at the back door.

"I don't trust her." Never one to mince words, Michael kept his eyes on the door an extra moment longer before turning to look at Max. "There's something off with her."

"I know, right?" Maria agreed readily enough, giving Liz a look. Michael spared her the briefest of glances, feeling that vague flash of annoyance he always got around her. She made his heart beat fast – that much was for sure – but it was only part of the time that fast beat came from warm-fuzzies. The majority of the time it was annoyance because the petite blonde – as perceptive as she got – sometimes missed or made light of things that were very important.

And that chick that had just walked out of here was important with a capital I.

"Michael," Max's voice was tight and more than a bit resigned and Michael knew he was going to tell him he was just being paranoid but the truth of the matter was he felt it was his job to be paranoid. There was an instinct in him, one he'd always had, that told him to keep them safe.

Whether it came from his alien half or human half it didn't matter – the thing here was that he needed to follow it.

"I'm right, Maxwell," he stated, interrupting the intimately familiar lecture while keeping his eyes on the door.

"Whatever, Michael," Isabel interrupted, but her tone was far from dismissive as her gaze darted between the two of them. Izzy hated it when they fought – did her best to play peacemaker and usually succeeded admirably because both Max and Michael knew that if they kept at it they'd just end up fighting and Michael would still do his thing and Max would either get quiet and broody afterwards or shake his head with that same air of resignation. "Let's just eat."

Placing his usual order, Michael settled onto the counter stool but kept his gaze on the door until that doe-eyed brunette put in a reappearance.

She looked awful – shaky and tired – which made him wonder just what exactly she'd been up to out there, but she ignored him readily enough as she got back to her job.

Still, no matter how normal she appeared on the outside, Michael knew there was something else lurking underneath, something dangerous.

Something he needed to know.

* * *

"We have tails." Given their motley genetic make-up, there was a distinct possibility of this statement having several meanings, but right now it only had one.

"I see 'em," Jondy replied, her voice piping though the headset installed in both of their helmets.

"Where'd we pick them up?" She asked briskly as they slid their bikes smooth-as-you-please around another corner.

"Gas station," was Zane's clipped reply. "But how?"

"Barcodes are covered," Jondy replied in equally quick tones as she eyed the black truck following them in her mirror.

It wasn't Manticore – Manticore wouldn't bother trailing them, just pick them up however they could whenever they could – but it was somebody who was setting her teeth on edge.

"I wonder what they want," she muttered and Zane's snort came down the line loud and clear.

"Who cares? The real question is how we lose them."

"There's a warehouse district about two miles up," Jondy replied tersely, bringing up her memory of the map she'd briefly consulted while meandering in the gas station. "With a junkyard next door."

"Excellent," Zane replied.

"What's the plan?" Jondy asked, watching as the cluster of buildings grew closer and closer.

"Lose 'em," was Zane's reply. "Take 'em out if we have to."

"All of them?" Jondy's voice was pleasantly neutral – she'd made her peace with what needed to be done to stay free and alive a long time ago.

"No," Zane replied after a moment, his voice grim. "I think I'd like to have a chat with them about their stalking tendencies."

"Got it," Jondy replied. "I take east you take west?"

"Roger," Zane replied lazily even as they arrived at their destination. "See you on the other side."

And then they were gone.

**A/N:** So I'm not sure if I intended for this to be a chapter in and of itself, but since I haven't actually done anything with it in a while…

Again – don't expect a whole lot for a while. I'll do my best but until I have time (two jobs, school, human contact, sleep, food, etc., etc.) don't hold your breath. Again, I'm real sorry.

-Abandon


End file.
